St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-23
DICKS "WARNING."


Dick had a singular impression re-
garding Nora tonight. She hadn't been
in his mind all day, which was some
thing unusual, but then he had been
unusually busy. Now, while he counted
his package of tickets and the money in
the drawer, it seemed to him she was
near him. He looked up with start
once, for he thought he heard the soft
swish of a woman's garments. He won
dered vaguely if being alone nights in
the little depot was not unSettling his
head.
The last train to stop there had passed
some time ago. He closed the ticket
window, and went and locked up, at
tended to the fire, which was glowing
mass of Goals, glanced on the curtainless
windows at the wierd moonlight, then,
presence beside him, he went upstairs
to the little room overhead, where he
had slept for the past year.
Instead of undressing and turning
into bed as usual, he sat down by the
window in the broad square of moonlight
and looked down the long track with its
gliStening rails converging to a point in
the distance. 1t was a lonesome spot,
like many another railway station, but
there was a small hotel, blackSmith's
shop, store and half dozen dwellings.
He thought he heard the rustic OF gar
ments again. He looked back over his
shoulder, for it seemed that light fingers
pressed his arm just then. But there
was only the chairs, and bedstead, and
high, dark bureau, and Gen. Grant in a
dark wooden frame, looking down from
the wall silently.
Under the spell of some mystical clair
voyance he took key from small
drawer in the bureau, went down stairs
again, stepped out on the front plat
form, locking the door after him, crossed
the track and unlocked the back door of
small, neat white house that stood
alone in the midst of the eXpanSe of
snow.
He stepped into the little kitchen. The
blinds were open and everything looked
distinct in the moonlight. He walked
through into the little sitting-r0om and
parlOr, with its cheap lace curtains, then
back into the kitchen, with that I'M
movable, undefnable, pulsing presence
following him.
Everything was just as it had been
fitted up year ago to receive Nora as
BRIDE They had had a quarrel almost
on the eve of their wedding. 1t had
commenced with trifle and ended by
Nora giving him back his ring.
He sat down on the lounge in the
oilcloth pattern absently, wondering
why he had done this unusual thing, to
come to the house at this hour OF the
night
He hadn't been inside for weeks. 1t
always made him homesick to look
across at it. He had sent boy that
day to open the blinds and let in the
sunlight, because he didn't want to go
himself.
He was well aware it was through no
volition of his own that he was here
now, at midnight, yet he was in no con-
ditiOn to analyZe. 1t was cold. He
looked at the kitchen stove and the full
wood-bQX behind it, and wondered how
fire would go. There were kindlings
in little ''cubby hole" (How little he
had thought they would be unused so
lOng.) He had match in his pocket,
and soon had cracking fire that
lighted the windows and made him
hasten to close the blinds, lest some be-
lated native should start story that
the house was haunted. He drew up
chair and warmed his hands by the
blaze. The shadows played hide and
seek in the corners. He opened dish
closet door i'll front of the stove, and the
light glinted On the polished surfaces,
and a dark green pitcher, made in the
likeness of human face, leered at him
hideously. He wound up the little
kitchen clock on the mantelpiece and
set it going. Its tick sounded home
like.
Dick recalled the quarrel. Nora had
quick temper. She had said things
he resented deeply, though he had not
| said word in return. 1t was his way;
and a most eXaSperating one to girl
who would have been glad to ''haye it
didn't mean half of it. She was the
warmest-hearted, most affectionate lit
| tie girl in the world; he had proof of
that: and if she could ScOld, why, he
had once heard his father say that ScOldS
made the most faithful, loyal wives. He
knew now that if he had just asserted a
| little authority over her, taken her i'll his
arms and held her there, when she was
the angriest, she would have taken back
all she had said and fell to crying on his
| breast.
As he sat thinking an awful horror
gathered close about him. He stag
trembling. Mechanically he replenished
the fire. He took down the small look
ing-glaSS and saw that his face had a
| CHASTITY reflection in it.
He opened the kitchen door. The
lights in the houses and hotel were all
out long ago. The grove of trees few
rods distant stood tall and dark in their
| ghOstly drapery of snow. The windmill
on the blacksmith's shop was motion
| less. The clear, crisp, Steely night
waited in breathleSs, awful anticipation
of the Fastening tragedy. He heard the
distant roar of the C.. express. 1t thun-
dered nearer, then slowed up on the ris-
| ing grade. In another instant he heard
alarm signals, shouts, something like
the awful crash of falling timberS, more
alarm signals.
He ran down the track. He knew
that just around the curve the express
hadgone over the embankment. In a
few mSments he sighted the red, angry
eye OF the engine, still on the track with
the baggage car. He hurried along.
The passenger cars had rolled over and
over the embankment and lay in a hope
less wreck far below.
The moon looked down upon an awful
scene OF manned and dying. The all
was full of means and wailing, and the
h0arSdl shouts of those who retained
Seif-eOmmand.
Help was arriving from the station,
Dick scrambled down the bank with the
rest. Mora was down there! He knew
it}feltlit. What if? o, God! what
if;See were killed?
5rhose of the passengers who found
themselves but slightly injured were
making heroic efforts to save the others
The oserturned stoves had set fire to
the wreck. There were cries and pite-
Gus appeals from those imprisoned in
the brush, as the flames crept toward
them, cruel and Unsuitable.
Here Dick found Nora. She was pin.
ioned between two seats, with a portion
of the wreck resting heavily on her feet
BY the aid of one Of the brakemen, Dick